Grey
Grey is a modifier that affects a horse’s coat colour over time. A grey horse is born with its original colour (like bay, black or chestnut), but gradually becomes lighter as it ages.
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Looks Like (Phenotype)
Grey horses lighten with each coat change. They are born with their original colour, like: bay, chestnut or black, and then slowly gain more white hairs as they age. The first white hairs often appear around the eyes and face, and then spread across the body over the years. Many grey horses eventually look almost white, but they still have dark skin and dark eyes.
An easy way to think about it is to compare it to humans getting older. Some people go slightly grey and stay that way for years, while others turn completely white-haired before their forties. Horses experience something similar when they grey.
Variations and Stages
The speed at which a horse turns grey varies between individual horses and breeds. Because of this, many different names are used to describe how a grey horse looks at different times in its life. For example, a black horse that is gradually turning grey may look silvery and is then called a steel grey. However, genetically, these horses are all simply grey.
In horse colour genetics, people often describe a grey horse by saying its base colour going grey. For example, bay going grey or palomino going grey. This makes it clear what the horse’s original coat colour was, even if it has already turned white.
Common grey stages include:
- Dapple grey: soft, pale round dapples appear on the coat.
- Fleabitten grey: tiny coloured speckles appear on an otherwise white coat.
- Rose grey: a light reddish tint is still visible when the horse begins to grey (red based horses).
- Steel grey: a dark base colour mixed with white hairs, giving a silvery appearance.
- White grey: the coat has lost (almost) all pigment, giving the horse an almost pure white look.
Some grey horses also develop a larger coloured patch later in life, often called a bloody shoulder. Despite the name, this marking can appear anywhere on the body, not only on the shoulder.
If you’re familiar with Horse Reality, you may recognise several of these stages. In the game, horses get their grey coat assigne visually, so you can watch how a coat changes over time simply by caring for them and observing their growth.
Foals
Grey foals are often in an extremely dark or vibrant colour at birth. We call this: hyperpigmentation. They may show:
- Darker overall colour than expected
- Light hairs around the eyes (often called: goggles)
Their original colour becomes easier to identify during early growth, and then gradually fades again during the greying process.
Behind the Colour (Genotype)
Greying is caused by the G-allele. It's a dominant gene, so you need only one copy for the horse to start greying out.